Cape Coral Ceitus Boat Lift

Disappointing Concusion to EMA Process

On July 20, 2010 SCCF wrote recommending that the structure be replaced.  Click here for our letter.

Click here for Section 4 (with NEBs) of the 6/22/10 Final Report

Local Groups set to Challenge FDEP Consent Order

Fort Myers, FL, March 2008 - Local individuals and organizations are poised to challenge the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) Amended Consent Order with the City of Cape Coral.  The City of Cape Coral is proposing to eliminate one of their key water quality and groundwater recharge projects.  The elimination of this system will not only have an adverse impact on the receiving water bodies, but will also set a bad precedent related to the establishment of future water quality projects and also pave the way for the elimination of the other boat lifts and/or locks in Cape Coral. In accordance with State Law, a petition requesting an administrative hearing to prevent the elimination of the Spreader Canal System must be submitted by March 31, 2008.

History

In 1979, the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation in Consent Order No. 15 required the construction and maintenance of an innovative surface water management system, otherwise known as the Cape Coral Spreader Canal System.  It was designed to retain stormwater runoff at elevations above sea level and then discharge the water through the mangrove forest waterward of the swale system.  This was designed to accomplish several important environmental goals.
The system provided detention of storm water runoff, thereby improving the quality of the water that exited the system.  This is the primary treatment means of almost all modern surface water management systems providing water quality treatment and preventing over-drainage.  The system derived additional treatment from allowing the water to sheetflow across the mangrove forest before discharging to the adjacent tidal waters of the Aquatic Preserve.
The system also prevented over-drainage of the surficial groundwater aquifers and stemmed the advance of saltwater intrusion.  Cape Coral learned the hard way that opening up vast areas to tidal canals in the 1960’s drained off the fresh surficial groundwater and allowed for widespread saltwater intrusion.  In the case of the North Cape Coral Spreader Canal, the system was designed to maintain a control elevation of 1.2 feet above Mean Sea Level (MSL) that limited the over-drainage of the surficial groundwater system and held back saltwater intrusion.  

The Cape Coral Spreader Canal System, after construction, operated as it was designed.  However, insufficient maintenance was performed on the system allowing breaches to open up through the mangroves, thus rendering the system less and less effective in the period 1993 to present. The permits required that the system be maintained and a fund of $1,000,000 was set aside in the 1970’s for that purpose. However, these funds were never fully utilized for maintenance of the system and the system ultimately failed. 

In 2006, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) issued a Consent Order requiring that the system be repaired.  However instead of correcting the problem the City of Cape Coral was able to get the FDEP’s 2006 Consent Order overturned and replaced with a 2008 Consent Order which requires only that the Ceitus Boat lift be removed in 90 days and that an Ecosystem Management Agreement (EMA), a consensus-building process, take place with the intent of establishing stormwater treatment within the urban areas of Cape Coral.  
To support their position the City has claimed that the Spreader Canal System never functioned properly and therefore should be removed.  Additionally, this proposed 2008 Consent Agreement also does not address the importance of maintaing surficial groundwater levels and thus preventing over drainage of the surficial groundwater aquifers.  It also does not provide any tangible success criteria related to the establishment of the proposed EMA.  
The Natural Resources

The Matlacha Pass estuary, a State of Florida Aquatic Preserve, is bounded by Pine Island to the west, Cape Coral to the east, Charlotte Harbor to the north, and the Caloosahatchee River to the south. The estuary is important for its aesthetic value; used for recreational boating, sport and commercial fishing, tourism, and residential development; and is a nursery for fish and invertebrates. Historically, freshwater runoff from Cape Coral entered Matlacha Pass estuary as sheetflow. As development occurred on Cape Coral, canals were designed and constructed to collect the freshwater runoff and distribute it as sheetflow through two spreader canal systems into Matlacha Pass. Water managers have expressed concern that altering the freshwater runoff patterns into the pass could have a detrimental effect on salinity distribution which might adversely affect the aquatic system of the pass.

The resource significance of the area is well-documented, most of which afford special protection by the State and Federal governments:

• Matlacha Pass Aquatic Preserve  http://www.dep.state.fl.us/coastal/sites/matlacha/
• Matlacha Pass National Wildlife Refuge  http://www.fws.gov/southeast/MatlachaPass/
• Charlotte Harbor Aquatic and State Buffer Preserve http://www.floridastateparks.org/charlotteharbor/ParkSummary.cfm
• Class II (shellfish harvesting) and III (recreational) Waters http://www.floridadep.org/water/wqssp/classes.htm  
• Outstanding Florida Waters receive special protection by State of Florida. An Outstanding Florida Water, (OFW), is a water designated worthy of special protection because of its natural attributes. This special designation is applied to certain waters, and is intended to protect existing good water quality. http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/wqssp/ofw.htm
• Eighty-six of the state’s endangered and threatened species are found within the Charlotte Harbor region (listed by the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora or Florida Committee on Rare and Endangered Plants and Animals).http://www.dep.state.fl.us/coastal/sites/matlacha/info.htm
• EPA Estuary of Special Concern  as designated under the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary http://www.chnep.org
• Important Fisheries include recreational species of mullet, spotted sea trout, red drum, flounder, blue crab, pink shrimp, stone crab, snook, tarpon, grouper, snapper, sheepshead and several species of shark. Commercial species are cobia, flounder, mullet, pompano, spotted sea trout, snapper, tripletail, blue crab and pink shrimp.
• Eco-tourism is the primary attraction in the Matlacha and Charlotte Harbor area, such as the Great Calusa Blueway, one of twelve nationally-designated water trails recognized by the National Park Service and recognized in national publications.  Phase II is in the Matlacha/Pine Island Sound area http://www.greatcalusablueway.com/map/pdf/GCB_phase2.pdf .  The Great Florida Birding Trail has two sites in Matlacha, others in Charlotte Harbor area http://www.floridabirdingtrail.com/sites_south.htm

Additional Issues

• All waters and basins already verified as Impaired Waters by FDEP.

• Non-point source (NPS) pollution is a major issue for Southwest Florida coastal waters.
• Lack of stormwater features in NW Lee County and City of Cape Coral and overdrainage of area with increased impervious surfaces also exacerbate the situation.

Legal Action Considerations

• The consent order has been signed by FDEP allowing the Ceitus lock to be removed; any actions must be filed before the March 31 deadline for an Administrative Hearing with DOAH.

• Removal scheduled to begin April and, potentially, untreated stormwater will be dumped directly into Matlacha Pass starting in June 2008.
• The Consent Order allows an Ecosystem Management Agreement (EMA) to mitigate this removal, with no guarantees of an outcome or funding or timeline.
• Removal of the lock without systems already in place will cause damage to Matlacha Pass and the surrounding waterbodies.
•  A legal challenge will set forth conditions and agreements to ensure that projects in the watershed will be set in place so as not to cause further damage to the “downstream” environment.

Summary

It is important that the Cape Coral Ceitus Boat Lift and North Spreader Canal Systems be restored to original design specifications and made to function properly for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to provide water quality protection to the Aquatic Preserve and all of the surrounding receiving tidal water bodies.  
Additionally, allowing removal of the system would set a terrible precedent currently as the coastal communities are demanding that the State implement water quality treatment systems on waters that ultimately discharge into our marine environment not dissimilar to that of the Cape Coral Spreader Canal system.